I’m baaaaack (said in the weird poltergeist voice!)

wowza – what a ride this life is! I have taken a HUGE hiatus from the blogging world for a while as I have been working on focusing in on what my top priorities are. I made a big shift as to things that were essential and things that were nice to have. The blog… well, that got put on the ‘nice to have’ list and as such, got moved down on the ‘to-do’ list further and further.

Don’t get me wrong – I have different blog post ideas swirling around in my head constantly… right next to the book ideas that are also swirling… which are right by the Facebook posts that are swirling..

Is it any wonder why I am frequently feeling dizzy??

Here’s the bullet point update on life, love, and the pursuit of happiness… or at least the pursuit of sane-ness ;).

— new baby born (wahoo!)

— book sales and speaking gigs going well (wahoo!)

— started masters program in school and community gardens (wah… what??! yep.. after years of teaching people to eat closer to the farm, I decided I should take the leap and add that last piece to teach people how to grow the farm. Only problem was – I didn’t know a THING about gardening. So I jumped in with both feet and have been working in our elementary school and YMCA gardens with the kids. it is AWESOME!!)

— shifted the masters program (I know, I know, I just started it one bullet point ago!) to include international gardening efforts

— oh yea… the pregnant part – had ANOTHER baby (wow – I really have been in a blogging hiatus for a LONG time!). Total kids in family now = 7. Total alone minutes I get on a daily, weekly, monthly basis = 0. (seriously, folks, not even a trip to the ‘potty’ warrants the coveted alone time! I tell you, you have not lived until you have had to fight your two year old who is wanting desperately to help you ‘wipe’! We are living the glamorous life around here – I tell you what!)

— birthed another book (well, almost – my part is done… now it’s just waiting in line at the publishers – release date set for August – double WAHOO!!).

— almost moved to the country to give kids more space (5 acre plot!)… but couldn’t stomach the huge house and price tag that came along with it, so stayed put. (how many toilets can I realistically keep clean, even with the help of the little ones??!)

— almost moved across the country (well, I think ‘almost’ is a bit of an exaggeration… my dream location tried to whew hubby away from his job. It was right in the middle of my beloved western mountains. I could almost taste the endless weekends of skiing with the kids in the winter and hiking/camping in the summer, not to mention being SO close to family!! But when hubby spends 8+hours a day at work, and knowing that the job itself would even hold a match next to his current job… aka dream job of the universe… I knew it was kind of a pipe dream.)

— took a trip out of the country. We took the olders on a humanitarian aid trip to Guatemala (my hearts home!!) I headed up the agriculture committee to help them learn how to grow community and household gardens while hubby spent all day, every day doing surgeries (in the craziest of surroundings! on top of tables, in tents, in dark corners of steaming hot building, etc). Almost died a few times. Got stranded on a mountain road. Took a ride on a motorcycle with a total stranger as I tried to get to little city to get some requerdos of Guatemala for the kiddos. Not one of my smartest moves, but did make it through the whole ordeal unscathed (perhaps being 6 months pregnant and looking completely desperate helped a little??)

we got to tour the inside of one of the homes – a bamboo hut!

yes, we rode in the back of cattle trucks to get around!

— added yet another to the family (in the canine version). All I can say is, don’t ask me what I was thinking on this matter. He’s cute, and sassy, and BIG. Fun addition. But again, don’t ask me what I was thinking when I agreed to this addition!!

— started a new cooking program with the kids (will expand on this in later blog posts) now going on three weeks and still going on! That is a huge accomplishment for me on this type of program – I have started this many years in a row and have never made it through the first few days. I’m feeling a new trend come and it is awesome!!

— living, loving, freezing and defrosting – many times on a daily basis as we continue on this great roller coaster of life!

Cent Savers

Church Ideas

Family Times

Fun With Food

Sanity Savers

Welcome

Although I have my family blog where I write all of our little day to day happenings… this blog idea has been rolling around in the catacombs of my brain for quite some time. More than just a 'here’s what’s happening in my life' type of a blog, I envision this blog as being a place where I can finally dump all of my 'deep thoughts', as crazy as they may be, and let them come to fruition in the writing about them.